The persisting COVID-19 epidemic has turned the attention of all of us to the subject matter of employees’ mental health. The situation in which some people have been working from their homes for more than a year and a half with limited interaction with their associates while being in the midst of their household members may have led to the emergence of a feeling of being threatened by other people, fear, uncertainty and concern as well as of symptoms accompanying traumatic stress.

It is manifest that the subject of employees’ mental health and the related measures an employer can undertake did not appear at the time of the advent of the pandemic but the magnitude of the problem revealed by the pandemic instructs one to scrutinize this issue more precisely, also in terms of occupational safety and health.
 

Working alone

The topic of employee isolation is not new to occupational safety and health regulations. They use the notion of “working alone”. According to the Regulation on the general rules of occupational safety and health, “employers shall introduce an obligation for a person to file a report in a specified manner at designated times if threats to employees’ health or lives may occur in an emergency situation, and especially threats related to the following: fire, explosion, electrocution, leakages of gases or steam from substances classified as hazardous“. This clearly shows that the legislator when examining working alone focuses on the physical threats posed to employees that may transpire in the place where they work.

What’s more, these threats may transpire in an emergency situation. This means that this does not refer to the threats stemming from the impact exerted on a human’s psyche by having to work in isolation on a constant basis. In the current case of remote work it seems that this regulation could be applied solely if an employee were to be involved in doing work in a site unsuitable to doing that job. However, it must be remembered that in such an instance, according to Covid regulations, employers should not instruct employees to perform remote work due to the lack of suitable space to do that work.
 

Employees’ mental health and the ability to work

Regardless of whether an employee’s poor state of mental health is a result of isolation or is caused by totally different factors, an employer should have the ability to check whether an employee is fit to work. For a poor state of mental health may lead to an inability to work. Employees may also pose a threat to themselves or their associates. The regulations do not state with precision which specific steps an employer should take in such a circumstance. Nevertheless, one should assume that the employer should direct such an employee to undergo a periodic medical checkup while stating the reasons for which the employer is doing this prior to the elapse of the validity of the current checkup. This approach will also make it possible to give the occupational medicine physician an indication of the aspects of an employee’s health to be checked. 

An employer does not have any influence over an employee’s checkup performed by an occupational medicine physician. However, properly filling out the reference for a medical checkup will give the occupational medicine physician information on the areas to which special attention should be devoted. For one should remember that an occupational medicine physician can order the performance of additional tests by a specialist in a given area. Although employees are supposed to describe their state of health during a doctor’s visit, to hinder them from possibly concealing their poor state of health the relevant information should be presented by the employer in the reference. When doing so one should remember that this information cannot violate an employee’s personal rights.

Employers and employees have the right to appeal against the certificate issued by an occupational medicine physician if they do not agree with its findings.
 

Employees’ conduct in the work place

Situations occur in which employees’ conduct in the work place is disquieting: employees may speak illogically, mumble, solicit other employees, appear to see things that do not exist or whose behavior may in some other manner deviate from the behavior of a healthy person. In such an instance the employer should ask these employees to vacate the place of work while endeavoring, however, not to trigger an outburst of aggression. A suggestion may be given to such employees that they take several days of holiday or contact a physician to obtain sick leave. One should communicate with such employees with a sense of delicacy so as not to be in jeopardy of being accused of violating their personal rights. 

If, however, employees act aggressively, their employer should call the police or an ambulance. For in this case the health and lives of other employees are the top priority.
Unfortunately, in remote work it will be much more difficult to observe any disquieting behavior demonstrated by an employee due to limited contact. 
 

Psychiatric / psychological care for employees

The findings of research conducted recently among employees indicate that nearly half of them would like for their employer to offer psychological consultations in the work establishment. This clearly shows how profound the impact exerted on employees’ mental health by the pandemic is. 
Employers may provide such a benefit to their employees. However, one should remember that in principle employers should not have access to the documentation produced during such consultation sessions. For this will contain data pertaining to employee health, where employers can gain access to such data solely in special circumstances. 

However, there are situations in which one may give consideration to employers obtaining access to this data. For instance, if employees view drastic content in the Internet at work, then it seems to be justified not only to provide employees with access to specialist care but also to provide employers with limited access to information about the course of this care. For there is no doubt that constantly recurring interactions for many hours at a time with drastic or obscene content may unfavorably affect an employee’s mental health.

In such a case there is no justification for an employer to wait to take action until a situation arises in which employees manifest mental problems through their behavior in the work place. For employers may react earlier if a person caring for employees (psychologist / psychiatrist) draw their attention to the fact that a given person may be experiencing difficulties. The sooner an employer obtains this information, the more quickly it will be able to respond and the more quickly a given person will be able to obtain the necessary assistance.
 

Job-related risk assessment

According to the draft law on remote work, before an employee is allowed to do remote work an employer will have to prepare an occupational risk assessment covering the mental and social aspects of this job, among others. The foregoing regulation indicates straight out that the topic of doing work in isolation may affect employees’ mental state of health and this circumstance should be taken into account when an employer draws up this risk assessment. However, it would be difficult to state when this remote work regulation will be introduced to the labor code. At this time, regulations concerning job-related risk assessments that do not directly focus on how a given job can affect an employee’s mental state of health are still in place.